Blues Explosion

They have been gigging around the Dublin blues scene for the past couple of years and now Ali and the DTs release their debut long player, Get The First Layer Of Civilisation Off, which was recorded in Cavan last summer. Songs from the album such as ‘Always The Fool’ and ‘Get The Devil Out Of My Head’ mark them out as a post-modern roots outfit blending classic R&B with more contemporary influences such as Beck and Alabama 3.

The core of the band is made up of Ali DeMora (vocals), Gerry Power (guitars), Terry McGuinness (guitars and vocals), Christian Volkmann (blues harp, percussion and backing vocals), Salvatore Urbano (piano) and Mick Power (drums). They are regularly joined onstage by other musicians for live gigs and recordings.
“We come from a background gigging blues standards — Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, early Rolling Stones, all that kind of stuff,” says harp player Christian Volkmann. “But we’re going into more of a soul direction these days. We got in a couple of backing singers and a brass section – a bit like The Commitments in their heyday - although they were more of a showband. We do our own stuff mainly. And that would set us apart from a lot of blues bands.”
Originally known as Manalishi, after the Fleetwood Mac (Mark 1) song, ‘The Green Manalishi’, they morphed into Ali and the DTs when McGuinness joined. After a couple of years playing bars and blues clubs around Dublin they have since moved beyond the close-knit blues scene to encompass a much wider audience. They appeared at the recent Hard Working Class Heroes festival and have dates coming up in both Whelan’s and the Button Factory. According to Volkmann, moving from playing mainly covers to originals was a risk that paid off.
“When we played exclusively at blues gigs doing covers it was easy enough to find an audience. People would just walk in off the street and it’s usually for free and they’d be well up for it. With our own stuff, it’s a bit more interesting. We now have people coming to see us for our own songs. We actually have a following and they know a lot of the new songs already, which is nice”.
Volkmann, who hails from Hamburg, learned his musical chops growing up in the city which was a Mecca for UK and American blues and rock players in the 1960s. “There still is a good rock and blues scene,” he says. “The Star Club where The Beatles played is still going strong. They have cool pictures on the wall and they’ve kept the 1960s décor intact. But there was a folk scene there in the 1980s and there’s a big hip-hop scene there right now and that was probably an influence on me as well.”
When he came to Ireland to live in Galway about 12 years ago he was exclusively a guitar player, as he explains. “I was doing the typical, ‘German-bloke-singing-Bob Dylan-songs’ on the streets of Galway. Then I met this guy who was a much better player than me, so I ditched the guitar and took up the harmonica and it’s my main instrument now.
“It’s not as simple to play as a lot of people might think,” he adds. “When I heard the likes of Larry Adler playing with an orchestra, I thought it was incredible what he could do. On the other hand, when you sit down and work out simple melodies that can be the most effective. The main thing with me is to have intent, you just can’t keep blowing away with no direction.”
His influences are not confined to blues players: “I listen to a lot of different players. Bob Dylan has a song on his very first record. I can’t remember what it’s called – it’s a freight train song. I’ve never heard him play the harmonica better on any other record since that one. Paul Butterfield would be my hero. Check out The Last Waltz movie and watch him doing ‘Mystery Train’, which is the absolute pinnacle for me. He also plays ‘Mannish Boy’ with Muddy Waters in the movie. He only plays three notes on that clip but I spent weeks working out how he does it. Mick Kinsella from Ennis in my eyes is without question the best harmonica player in Ireland right now. He has the attack of Don Baker and his range is incredible.”
Given the classic rootsy sound, the members of the DTs not surprisingly keep things simple in the equipment and instrument department, as Volkmann explains. “The rhythm guitarist Terry plays a Fender Strat through a Fender Blues Deluxe amp. Gerry, the lead guitarist, has a sort of a custom guitar with a Telecaster body and some sort of weird neck – he says it’s a piece of junk but it delivers a fantastic sound. He also uses a Fender Blues Deluxe amp. With the harmonica I use a Shure bullet mic and that goes through a Fender Blues Deluxe too. We’ve three of them in the band but it’s more a coincidence – they’re a great amp.”
The band takes the same basic approach to using effects: “I think between the two guitars in the band there’s maybe three effects pedals at most. It’s crazy the amount of pedals you see some players using these days. You’d want to be a step dancer as well as a guitarist to get around them.”
According to Volkmann nothing dominates in the DTs and they create a sound from an ensemble approach. “The sound comes from everybody stepping aside and letting everybody else have some space,” he explains. “Our keyboard player Salvatore is a virtuoso and would feature quite a bit although he constantly tells me to turn the reverb down on the harmonica (laughs). Ali of course is a fantastic singer. Overall it’s a very intuitive high energy sound. It wouldn’t work if everyone didn’t play ball.”
In keeping with their no-nonsense approach the album was recorded mainly live in a few days as he explains. “We got the bones of it down in three days in a fishing hut in Cavan. Then we did the vocals, a couple of bass lines, the piano and some backing vocals.
“The idea now is to take the album around the country and we’re probably going to have to look at doing a few smaller gigs. The new licensing laws have really changed the whole scene. Late gigs have collapsed and half our gigs have gone because of it. None of the small places stay open late anymore with the €400 fee they have to pay for the extension.”